WE ARE NOT OUR MISTAKES

I think two of the most powerful words in the english language put together are I AM.  

We humans have this tendency to put negative words behind those two words.  I AM a loser.  I AM not good enough.  I AM broke.  I AM fat.  I have caught myself over and over again over the years doing it.  Mostly unaware when I was doing it.  Now that I'm conscious of my thoughts, I'm able to catch myself and practice putting positive words behind those two words.  :-)  Yes, I said practice.  Seems the saying practice makes perfect leaves the perfect as some amazing place in which we arrive one day.  My experience is there is no such thing as perfect so the emphasis best be placed on 'practice'.  

So, I AM amazing.  I AM enough.  I AM where I am and that's ok.  I AM smart.  I AM different.  I AM confident.  Changing the words we put behind the I AM has the power to transform our lives from one of self loathing and judgement, to one of self love.  Eventually.  After aLOT of practice!

So many of us walk through life thinking that we can never really live our dreams or be all we can be because we've made these huge 'mistakes' in our past.  We feel because of our past actions, we are not worthy of good things in life.  This isn't true and couldn't be further from the truth!  The ironic part is that part of the human earth life experience is to make 'mistakes'!!!  This is how we learn and teach others.  If we cruised through life being all perfect (there's that darn word again!!) then we wouldn't actually be 'experiencing' life in order to become more wise.  

The trick is to know we are forgiven for whatever we think we've done that's so so so horrible!!!  Some people's 'mistakes' are huge in society's eyes.  Some people steal, some people assault others, some people have deep dark addictions, some commit adultery, and some people kill people.  I don't believe we are judged for our 'mistakes', I believe we are judged by what we 'learn' from our mistakes.  Maybe part of your purpose is to teach criminals about turning their lives around?  If that's the case, then wouldn't you have to become a criminal first?? (which would look from the outside in, as a HUGE unforgivable mistake)?  If you're a goody two shoes and haven't done time and rehabilitated, what criminal would listen to you??  A criminal would listen to a reformed criminal before he's going to listen to some guy who's got no life experience!!  Catch my drift ;-)  

We can apply this scenario to some past 'mistake' we feel we made.  Maybe we are meant to realize that we are not meant to carry shame and guilt the rest of our lives, maybe we are meant to actually experience making that mistake then get up, dust ourselves off (by forgiving ourselves) and taking the high road.  Understanding that we are NOT what we've done in our past, we truly are what we have overcome.  

I've made many so called mistakes but I've chosen to learn from them and change my life so they move from being 'mistakes' to 'lessons'.  Seems so many of us get easily stuck in the guilt and shame phase of the process and stay there for the rest of our lives, choosing to 'numb' ourselves in various ways.  It's never too late to face ourselves and face up to our past.  Look it straight in the eyes and say hey, I messed up bad but that's behind me now.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life.  How am I going to use my lessons to help other people!!  

No one said this life was easy, but we all signed up for it and here we are.  So let's stop judging ourselves for what we've 'done', so we can stop judging others for what they've 'done'.  Let's take responsibility for our past actions and our future actions....and overcome.  Lets allow ourselves to wipe the slate clean and start over, no matter what anyone else says!  This is how we heal.  We can use our lives to help those who will come behind us and make the same 'mistakes' as we did.  They may feel a belonging and maybe see us as their hope, and we could all use a little more hope. :)  

Peace, Love and Healing......